BenseBuilt XW8600

[TheBense]

I figured I'd go ahead and post this. 

You can buy extremely powerful 120x120x38mm PWM fans for around $7 shipped. Search eBay for "J6165" and you will find a plethora of 3.3A Nidec fans that Dell implemented in a lot of their poweredge machines.

They do however have a non-standard pinout, but it takes less than three minutes to re-pin by taking a gander at this page, and using one of those trapezoid shaped single edge razor blades.

http://www.setiusa.us/showthread.php?2480-PWM-Fan-Pinouts-Industry-Standard-amp-Dell-configurations

and here's another thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/890610/how-to-make-proprietary-dell-server-fans-work-on-any-motherboard

Also, if you're looking for a 5pin connector to plug into your motherboard's CPU fan header(s) this might be useful. 

The 3.3A fan (39.6W) is boss. Just by spinning the propeller with your hand, you can feel how much torque the the motor has. Also, if you're not wanting to taint your system with a "dell" part, you can also check out 443266-001. Which appears to be a 3.24A delta fan. 

Here's a few other noteworthy p/n's to search eBay for, that some of you might find useful.

V34809-35INT9F

WC236 (92x92mm)

Gateway E-9520T Server Fans 90500170714 Delta PFC1212DE

I have two of the 4.8A Delta PFC1212DE fans. They are BEASTS. They draw 57.6w of power, and are the most powerful DC12v 120x120mm fans that I've found. If any of you have a girlfriend that you want to stop coming by your place, I highly advise getting a few of those badboys. No sane person is going to want to be around the fans while they're in action.

And here's an appropriate song. You spin me right round ....  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGNiXGX2nLU

[SDH]

Bense,

Thank you..... that is very handy.  HP has stayed with the standard wiring sequence with their PWM fan leads, but has had different fan lead plug ends with different shapes for case fans, heatsink fans, and northbridge fans.  I did get a set of the different types from Mouser.com, and thus can convert from one type to another quite easily.

Let me know if you need the part numbers.  Not sure if those Dell wire ends can be removed from their type of plug and slipped into the HP types of plugs.

If possible could you please provide us a wiring diagram of how you wired up the power in and the PWM 4 leads out related to that nice Amazon PWM LED/fan controller you discovered.... so that we can experiment a bit.  My guess is that you're not using all of the PWM wires to pull that off, but I cannot make out the wiring from the video link you provided.

Thanks

[TheBense]

Hey Scott, my apologies. I have managed to post all the technical stuff, but have forgotten to post the very simple, yet very relevant information.

I am using the dell / nidec 5-pin plugs on verious fan headers of my xw8600 motherboard. I just repinned them, and sliced a very small piece of plastic that was in the way, much like the piece that needs to be sliced off when using a non HP 4-wire PWM fan. 

My rear 3.3A 120x120x38mm fan that is hooked up to the LED dimmer is wired very simply. The PWM wire (typically blue) and the RPM wire still connects to the rear fan header on the motherboard. The ground and positive wires are connected to the "V- & V+" OUT ports on the dimmer. The V- and V+ IN ports on the dimmer correspond to a 12V (typically yellow) and a ground wire. I ended up using one of the 6-wire PCIe plugs to supply power to the fan. On my primary graphics card, an nvidia GTX 770, I draw power from ONE of the 6-pin PCIe plugs coming from the OEM 1050w powersupply, and for the 8-pin PCIe female plug on my GPU, I'm drawing power from one of the drive rails using an adapter off of newegg. I'll include links below.

I also should mention, that the memory fan that draws air directly away from the FB-Dimms, so that the 120x120mm fan can then pull that air out the rear of the case, is a 92x92mm fan. I wound up using a nidec 92x92x32mm fan that draws 0.55A, which is slightly more than the HP 0.38A fan.  If anyone is interested, search ebay for M35172-35 or WC236.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812706014 6-pin PCIe to dual 6+2 pin PCIe splitter.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198016 slightly cheaper version, identical to the one above.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189002 4-pin "MOLEX" splitter adapter.'
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226018 Converts 1 SATA power plug into two 4-pin "Molex" plugs. Very useful.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812706016 Converts two 4-pin "molex" plugs into one PCIe plug.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812226076 Converts two SATA power plugs to one 6-pin PCIe plug.

This is also an interesting cable. I am not using it on my XW8600, however it is still noteworthy. On another machine of mine, an (asrock 990fx extreme9) I've got one end of this cable plugged into the CPU fan header. The power is drawn from, another one of those 4-pin PATA/IDE plugs, which are frequently referred to as "MOLEX" plugs, and it allows you to connect 5 (preferabbly, identical) fans. This allows me to adjust the speed of all of those fans, which are hooked up to both of my radiators using the simple asrock tuning utility. As far as the software is concerned, it only knows about one fan. Yet all fans adjust their speeds in accordance to the same PWM signal supplied by the motherboard. Very handy.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812311001

[TheBense]

The beautiful nightmare. 

[Samuelleb11]

Hello everybody ! I just received an HP XW8600 motherboard. I fitted in a Rosewill Armor-EVO case with an EVGA power supply that a modded to fit the electrical requirement of the motherboard. The only thing is that I cant get display... Everything power on, cpu and ram get hot but no display... My video card is an AMD Radeon HD 5450 1Gb in PCI slot 2.

I use 2 Xeon E5430 with 16Gb of PC2-5300f ram.. Anyone can help me with that problem ?

Thanks in advance

[TheBense]

Are you sure that it is posting? 

I would start with a single FB-DIMM in RAM slot #, and with only one single CPU installed. Then I would reset CMOS and try to post. If no video, try moving GPU to different slots.

Then try swapping out your single RAM FB-DIMM with the other ones that you have. If that doesn't work, try swapping out your other CPU.

[Samuelleb11]

I done all what you've suggested and nothing worked... I bought an oem PSU of 800w, Hope it will do the trick. If you have any other tips let me now, It'll be cool if I can make thing work with my actual PSU

Edit: Solved by rechecking my PSU 24pin pinout scheme... Just a stupid error of RTFM...

[TheBense]

are we no longer able to have image attachments?

[SDH]

Bense.....

good to know you're out there.  I don't like the new limitations either, but you can insert jpeg pics inside your posts still.  Take a look down the list for the post on fixing the thermal probe in the xw workstations.  I have a few new pictures there for you, and also some of my info on how to get the latest drivers for the xw workstatins.

Scott

[Solarsails]

Hello Andrew,  I am interested in updating the firmware and bios to my LSI SAS1068 integrated on my xw8600.  I would like it to remain bootable and be used in a RAID 0 configuration.  Can you provide me with any insight as to which firmware files to use and where I could acquire them...  Also what is the original LSI name for this controller.  Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.  Best regards, Johny4.51